616 



POLYCARP POLYGAMY. 



his patriotism and disinterestedness. He executed, 

 to tli- 1 satisfaction of both parties, the Romans and 

 Greeks, the difficult commission of introducing the 

 new form of government in the cities of Greece. 

 The people of Achaia erected statues to him, one of 

 which has this inscription : " To the memory of 

 Polybius, whose counsel, had it been followed, 

 would have saved Achaia, and who consoled it in 

 its adversity." He attended Scipio to the siege of 

 Numantia, but, after the death of his great friend 

 and benefactor, he returned to his native land, 

 where he died in consequence of a fall from a horse, 

 B. C. 121, aged eighty-two years. 



Polybius is the author of a historical work from 

 the beginning of the second Punic war to the over- 

 throw of the Macedonian empire (fifty-three years). 

 It consists of thirty-eight books, besides two intro- 

 ductory books, containing a sketch of the Roman 

 history from the taking of Rome by the Gauls. 

 Although the affairs of Rome are the chief subject, 

 contemporary occurrences in other countries are 

 also related, on which account Polybius gave it the 

 title of a universal history (itrra^ia x.,6/>\ixri). We 

 have of this great work only the five first books 

 entire, and valuable fragments of the twelve follow- 

 ing, together with the politics of Polybius, taken 

 from the history of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, 

 and examples of virtues and vices. The loss of the 

 rest is very much to be regretted, as, in accuracy and 

 fidelity of narration, and in extent of political and 

 military knowledge, Polybius is surpassed by no 

 historian of antiquity. To him is also attributed 

 the introduction of didactic politics into history 

 that is, of that manner of writing history which, by 

 intermingling views of the causes, occasions and 

 effects of events, is a useful introduction to politics 

 (vguyfiaTa}. On the other hand, his style is des- 

 titute of beauty, and can be read only for the mat- 

 ter. Livy has sometimes copied him. Cicero men- 

 tions a particular work of his on the Numantian 

 war. The most valuable editions of Polybius ar,e 

 those of Casaulxin (Paris, 1609), of Jac. Gronovius 

 (Amsterdam, 1670, 3 vols.), republished by J. A. 

 Ernesti, with Casaubon's Latin translation and a 

 commentary (1764). and that of Schweighauser 

 (Leipsic, 1789 to 1793, 9 vols.;. The history of 

 Polybius has been well translated into English by 

 Hampton. 



POLYCARP, according to tradition, a disciple 

 of the apostle John, and one of the earliest bishops 

 of Smyrna, finally defended the Christian faith, in 

 the year 169, under torture, in being put to death 

 during the persecution of the Christians under 

 Marcus Aurelius. The people destined him to the 

 wild beasts, but the judges condemned him to the 

 flames. These, however, according to the legend, 

 played harmlessly around him, in the shape of a 

 swelling sail, and emitting a sweet fragrance. See- 

 ing his body to be proof against the flames, the 

 judges ordered one of the executioners to run him 

 through with a sword. A white pigeon suddenly 

 flew up, and the flames were extinguished by the 

 blood that flowed from the wound. Thus Chris- 

 ty lity had changed the heathened eagle which bore 

 tne soul of the Roman emperors to their kindred 

 gods into an innocent dove ; and a miracle was 

 then performed, which was afterwards repeated at 

 the funeral pile of the maid of Orleans. The Ro- 

 man church consecrated the twenty-sixth of January 

 to the memory of Polycarp. His Epistle to the 

 Philippians is the only one of his pieces which has 

 been preserved. 



POLYCLETUS OF SICYON, about 430 B. C., 

 one of the most celebrated Grecian sculptors, was a 

 scholar of A gelades, and a rival of Phidias, to whom, 



however, he was inferior in fire and nobleness of 

 conception. He was an architect, as well as Phidias, 

 but excelled chiefly as a statuary in bronze. His 

 principal merit is elegance. He devoted himself 

 principally to youthful gymnastic figures and figures 

 of females. Polycletus created the ideal of a youth- 

 ful figure. (See Sculpture, and Sculptors of the An- 

 cients.) He executed all the graceful attitudes of 

 the gymnastics of youth. In the Doryphorus, he 

 seems to have intended to exhibit a model or a 

 canon. (See Winckelmann's works, 6th vol.) He 

 is also said to have written a work on proportions. 

 He made the Argive Juno of a colossal form, as if 

 for a counterpart to Phidias's Jupiter, in ivory and 

 gold, unveiled, with a crown of gold on her head, 

 and a large arched eye, holding a sceptre, with a 

 cuckoo in her left hand, and in her right, which was 

 extended, a pomegranate. Polycletus also made 

 small bronze figures, beautiful vessels and lamps. 

 There are other artists of the same name. 



POLYCR ATES ; ruler of Samos during the time 

 of the elder Cyrus and Pythagoras. The Samians 

 had till then been free, but he made himself master 

 of the government by violence, and endeavoured to 

 secure his power by every means, even by an alli- 

 ance with the Egyptian king Amasis. His extraor- 

 dinary success in all his undertakings induced Ama- 

 sis, as Herodotus says, to admonish him to avert 

 greater calamities by some voluntary sacrifice. 

 Polycrates followed this advice, and cast his most 

 valued jewel, a precious signet ring, into the sea, 

 which was, however, found a few days after in the 

 maw of a fish that had been sent to him as a present, 

 on account of its remarkable size. This induced 

 Amasis to renounce his alliance. In fact, to use 

 the language of the ancients, Nemesis at last punish- 

 ed the arrogance of Polycrates in a dreadful manner. 

 When he was on the point of making himself lord 

 of all Ionia and the neighbouring islands, the Per- 

 sian satrap Orontes, who considered himself injured 

 by him, treacherously invited him to his palace, and 

 crucified him, B. C. 522. Polycrates seems to have 

 had much taste for learning and the arts, and 

 greatly promoted the refinement of the Samians. 

 Anacreon, his favourite, and the celebrator of his 

 fame, lived at his court. 



POLYDECTES. See Perseus. 



POLYGAMY consists in a man's having more 

 than one wife, or a woman's having more than one 

 husband, at the same time. It was common among 

 the barbarous nations of antiquity, with the excep- 

 tion of the Germans, who, as Tacitus observes, 

 prope soli barbarorum singulis uxoribus contenti 

 sunt. Among the ancient Britons, there was a 

 singular kind of polygamy. Any number of men 

 joined in a society together, as was perhaps requi- 

 site for mutual defence. In order to link this 

 society closer, they took an equal number of wives 

 in common, and whatever children were born were 

 reputed to belong to all of them, and were accord- 

 ingly provided for by the whole community. The 

 ancient Medes compelled the citizens of one pro- 

 vince to take each seven wives, and the women in 

 another to have each five husbands, according as 

 war had made extraordinary havoc in one quarter 

 of their country among the men, or the women had 

 been carried away by an enemy from another. 

 Polygamy was also permitted among the ancient 

 Greeks, when necessity seemed to require it, as in 

 the case of the detachment of young men from the 

 army of Lacedasmon, mentioned by Plutarch. It 

 was also allowed among the Tuscans (12 Athen. 3). 

 It was also defended by Euripides and by Plato, 

 whose doctrine was rather a community of wives 

 than a plurality. The ancient Romans never prac- 



